corporate compliance, investigation and defense

Few events are more frightening for top executives—or more threatening to a company—than criminal prosecution. Over the last decade, there has been a marked trend toward criminalization of many sections of commercial, securities and financial law. At the same time, federal and state agencies, including the 94 U.S. Attorney's offices around the United States, are devoting increased resources to the investigation and prosecution of "white-collar" crimes. Now, in the wake of the Enron and Arthur Andersen debacles, there has been a sharp decrease in public trust in business institutions, along with an increased willingness of prosecutors to pursue previously untouchable business institutions. In our experience, all of this means a readiness on the part of courts or jurors to not simply fine, but to convict and send highly-paid business executives to prison.

We can provide critically needed assistance in this area to business institutions, their executives and employees. Our Corporate Compliance, Investigation and Defense practice group is co-chaired by a pair of former prosecutors—a former U.S. Attorney and a former Missouri state prosecutor—who together bring more than 50 years experience to this area. In addition, the group includes more than a half-dozen attorneys who are intimately familiar with governmental investigative processes and who have long-standing professional relationships with decision makers in law enforcement agencies throughout the country.

The best defense begins with compliance. A well-designed compliance program demonstrates the company's commitment (and that of its top officers) to proper business practices. We can help you establish a compliance program tailored to your business and industry and consistent with the highest standards of outside scrutiny. Even with the best compliance program, however, there always remains the possibility that a rogue purchasing agent, trader or other executive within the corporation may become engaged in criminal misconduct. If someone in the company reports such misconduct, a failure to properly investigate and deal with the matter can expose top officers to charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy and other serious crimes independent of the underlying allegation. Likewise, the company or its auditors can discover that the company itself has been victimized by employees or business partners. In either circumstance, the best solution may be to launch an independent investigation by outside counsel.

In carrying out comprehensive internal investigations for corporate clients, our attorneys are skilled in getting to the truth while limiting the scope of liability affecting the client company and its top officers. Drawing upon their extensive experience in prosecuting business fraud cases and conducting more than 100 internal investigations, our attorneys are intimately familiar with investigative procedures, and bring credibility and experience when dealing with prosecutors and law enforcement agencies.

Finally, if criminal charges are threatened or actually filed, the corporation and its officers need the best trial counsel. The Firm has an outstanding group of trial lawyers who have been successful in defending business clients targeted by criminal investigators in healthcare, environmental and business fraud cases.

In achieving the best outcome in these cases—convincing prosecutors to accept a non-criminal resolution—our attorneys bring to the settlement table an intimate understanding of the white collar investigative process, credibility with prosecutors and an ability to defend cases in court should negotiations fail. Unlike the majority of traditional criminal defense attorneys who are more oriented to the "street" than the "suite," our attorneys have the experience and resources to distill millions of pages of documents and to make effective use of information technology in defending such cases in the courtroom.

In one especially demanding criminal trial, for example, we successfully defended the founder and chief executive officer of a manufacturing firm accused of filing false statements to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Not only was our client acquitted, but the judge in the case actually thanked our team of litigators for cutting at least two weeks off a three-month trial through the use of advanced electronics in handling hundreds of pages of documents and photos.